Dovasary: Oh, no no no. Beautiful compliment (it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside), but I don't think anyone come close to LL and her NQLL. But she did update early June - I remember, because I logged on before school and had a fit when I saw chapter sixteen. And she has, like, five-hundred-something reviews. - faints at thought of so many reviews - But, you're right, same ol' Han (who would think of changing him?). xDD Keep reviewing me, Dovasary, you always make me smile. :)
leias girl: ... xD I love it when people start making speculation about the storyline. It makes me feel important. :3 But thanks! (I'm not revealing anything, you'll have to wait and find out whether or not -- or, in the case of most people reading this, make a speculation that is totally opposite of what I'm telling you while pretending you grudgingly accept my assurances. Which really doesn't have much credit, come to think of it, since y'all were... right the first time. ... xD )

Author's Note: Here's chapter eighteen – a bit filler, and I had trouble deciding where I was going to take it and what was going to happen (hence the four-day wait), but hey, it's here.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"Are you joking?" Luke asks, staring at Han incredulously. I know Luke good enough to know that he wouldn't get into a yelling match, but I've never felt him so upset.

"I'll go with Leia, we don't know what's still on this ship." Mara declares, giving a reassuring smile at Luke and I before heading out the door. "Good luck, Solo." She throws over her shoulder with spite, before disappearing out of view. I rub the side of my head, slowly, still trying to take it all in.

"No, not really, jus' wonderin', seeing as I haven't seen you in… what, almost sixteen years?"

"Precisely. Han, I don't know what you were thinking when you bailed like that."

"I didn't bail." he snaps.

"Then what happened to you?"

"I - "

"Wait." Luke interrupted quietly, frowning. "Gods, she's gotten herself into trouble - " he mutters, stopping me as I open my mouth to demand what had happened. "Syrmé, I want you to go with Han to The Escort, and help him get the ship ready for hyperspace to Yavin. As soon as we come back and are on the ship, you're to get clear of the barge enough to make the jump." he says to Han.

"I'm not gonna be the one sittin' around." Solo argues.

"Me neither, if it's something to do with Mom I'm coming." I agree, making Luke rub his temples as if he were expecting us to protest.

"We don't have time for this, I don't want Syrmé to come but I don't want her going alone, either. I know very well that you can take care of yourself - " he says sharply, as my mouth opens again to protest. "But I don't want to take anymore chances with you."

"I'm not about to be her bodyguard! If you don't want her goin' alone, then you go with her!"

Well, that was nice of him. "I love you, too." I say to him sarcastically, and he responds with an eye roll.

"Well, see, you don't know where Leia is." Luke remarks, before disappearing out the door, leaving Solo and I with no choice but to cooperate with him.

"Well, come on." He says impatiently, waving his hand before sauntering out of the door. I catch up to him, falling into his stride.

"Why didn't you tell me who you were?"

Stupid question.

"Obvious reasons." he grunts. "What about you?"

I raise an eyebrow. That was a stupid question as well, seeing his relationship with my mother.

"Obvious reasons. If I told you, would you have taken my charter?"

"No. I wouldn't have reported you either, for the record."

"Why?" I ask, although already knowing the answer. He would have liked to see my mother suffer, and it's not like he knew me.

"Because." He offers as a legitimate answer. "Would you've flown with me if you knew who I was?"

"Hell yeah. I would have interrogated you, though, I mean, you were my mother's friend – or, I mean her… well, yeah…" I stop, leading us into an awkward silence. Damn! I just had to say that, didn't I?

He chooses to pretend as if he hadn't heard, which I'm grateful for. After all, we both know that he didn't 'bail' on her, even if he failed to tell Luke that. Not like it was his fault, anyways.

"You even know where this ship is at?"

"No. We'll just go to the docking bay and I'll find it. I mean, even if this place has more than one hangar, they're bound to be close to each other, right?"

I watch him as he ponders this. "Maybe. On the Death Star they had tons all over the station, but this ship isn't nearly as big. So I'm guessin' around three or four docking bays."

"Do you know where the docking bays are?"

"Aren't you leadin' us? Can't you just use the Force thing or whatever to find out?"

"I can't sense for the Force-signature of a mechanical ship."

"Oh. Well, that's useful."

"Sarcasm isn't useful right now…" I struggle with the next word. I'm not sure what to call him. Solo? Han? Tyl? "Han." I decide, since I've called him 'Tyl' in the past. I feel him look at me, but I keep my eyes forward.

"We're here." I hear him say a few minutes later, and I raise my eyes off the ground. Suspiciously, we had met no personnel on our way; we had seen them bustling the other way, with blasters ready in their hands, so my only conclusion is that my relatives had managed to get in a fight that's bigger than they intended.

"Wait." He mutters, giving me a slight push to the other side of the door and drawing his blaster. "We dunno who's in there, there're too many ships - "

" – That could hide attackers." I finish, smirking. "I wasn't about to walk in there; I'm not completely stupid."

"Glad to see I taught you well."

"You didn't. We were taught of ambush in school." I look away, blaster ready, just as he makes a face.

"D'you see your… mother's ship?" he asks quietly.

I twist, trying to get a glance at the hangar. Blaster fire rings out, and a line of red bolts narrowly misses me. Narrow, as in singing my sleeve.

"Didya see it?"

"Yeah," I answer, slightly out of breath. Can't blame me, I thought I was going to have to sport another blaster scar. "It's halfway down the hangar, on the left side. Small, ovalish."

"Okay. Keep your blaster out and lead the way. I'll cover you." I nod, stealing another glance at the bay before starting to step in. "Actually, better yet," (I screech to a halt) "as soon as you go in bank left; we won't be goin' blindly down the middle aisle an' we can see whoever's attackin' us and the other ships can cover us partway."

"Fine."

I head him mutter something in contempt about resorting to plans before I dive into the room. I feel heat around my legs as bolts warm the air, and I land on my hands before going into a neat roll and pulling out the blaster, returning fire. Surprisingly, most of my shots hit home, but I soon feel a tight, callused hand on my wrist jerking me unceremoniously to my feet and dragging me behind a ship.

"Good thing this place is small." Remarks Solo wryly, slightly out of breath as well. He ducks from behind the pedicle and shoots a few successive shots. I hear some grunts and thuds as they make their mark.

"Go!" he shouts, causing me to jump and tear off, hugging the left wall. I feel the metal behind me scorch by the blaster fire on my tail. Within a matter of seconds, I reach The Escort, and slide around quickly to the front, entering the pass code into the pad at the front. I feel Tyl – Han emerge behind me, trying to keep me from dying.

After the ramp doesn't lower, I look at the pad. There, in big bold letters, it says, 'ACCESS DENIED. ACCESS DENIED. ACCESS DENI - ' Damn! I start to punch in the code again, halfway through feeling a slight prod through the Force, thereby jerking my hand away and watching the pad, six inches from my nose, suddenly get singed and darkened from a well-aimed shot.

"Now what are we going to do?" he shouts angrily, and is answered by a need for diving out of the way as the ramp, amazingly, starts to lower. It hits the ground, and we both make to step on it, but it rises again, rapidly. And it does that again, and again, and a few more times as Han and I simply watch in perplexion.

"Dammit! Now the ramp's malfunctioning!" I say, accusingly, turning to glare at Han as if this was all his fault.

Crap. Now I'm sounding like Threepio.